[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1295 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1295

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
    Veterans Affairs to provide veterans with notice, when veterans 
electronically file claims for benefits under laws administered by the 
   Secretary, that relevant services may be available from veterans 
             service organizations, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 15, 2013

   Mr. Brown introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
    Veterans Affairs to provide veterans with notice, when veterans 
electronically file claims for benefits under laws administered by the 
   Secretary, that relevant services may be available from veterans 
             service organizations, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NOTICE TO VETERANS FILING CLAIMS ELECTRONICALLY OF 
              AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES FROM VETERANS SERVICE 
              ORGANIZATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 51 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 5103A the following 
new section:
``Sec. 5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electronically of 
              availability of services from veterans service 
              organizations
    ``(a) In General.--(1) To the degree practicable, the Secretary 
shall, during and as part of any electronic filing process established 
by the Secretary for the filing of applications for benefits under laws 
administered by the Secretary--
            ``(A) notify each claimant, or a representative of the 
        claimant, who is filing an application for a benefit under a 
        law administered by the Secretary using such electronic filing 
        process that services may be available to the claimant from 
        veterans service organizations with respect to the application 
        or the benefit for which the claimant is applying; and
            ``(B) provide such claimant or representative with a list 
        of veterans service organizations that provide such services.
    ``(2) When providing a list of veterans service organizations to a 
claimant or representative under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 
include contact information for each veterans service organization and, 
whenever applicable, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the 
Internet website of each organization.
    ``(b) Collaboration.--To the degree practicable, the Secretary 
shall collaborate with veterans service organizations in carrying out 
this section.
    ``(c) Veterans Service Organization Defined.--In this section, the 
term `veterans service organization' means any organization recognized 
by the Secretary for the representation of veterans under section 5902 
of this title.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 51 of such title is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 5103A the following new item:

``5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electronically of 
                            availability of services from veterans 
                            service organizations.''.
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